Flying under the Radar
by Black Scribler
Summary: His goal had always been to lead a quiet life, and even after learning he was a famous wizard he had managed to keep his adventures to the strict minimum. Harry Potter's life is about to get complicated and perhaps he will be forced to reveal his secrets.
1. Prologue

Flying under the Radar

Prologue: Sinking into Darkness

When a magical object causes you to travel as if sucked in by a tornado, you tend to remember well the feeling of the magical signature just before you picked up the said object. And the feeling he was getting now was the same as the one he felt during the Quidditch World Cup. The cup was a portkey.

"Cedric, let's take it together... On three, right?... One – two – three..."

It will probably take them to the infirmary so they could clean themselves and have their wounds mended before the ceremony.

"_Note to self: Ask Cedric to teach you how to land gracefully with a portkey."_

Falling face down into mud was not something he was expecting, and anything unexpected means possible mortal peril when it comes to magic-related matters.

Well, his luck was still with him. Twenty centimetres more and he would had had his head bashed onto a headstone.

"_Graveyard... Just peachy... This means the 'Let's kill Harry Potter' grand finale for this year continues..."_

"_Let's see who's about to have their eternal peace interrupted:_

_ R. M. Riddle_

_The Power of the Earth shall conquer Death_

"_Hmm... I guess it explains Tom's obsession with death. It must be hereditary."_

"_The earth of the grave seems to turn into liquid... I'm getting more and more stuck, like in a tar-pit!... I can't even cry for help any more with all this mud filling my mouth!... Please Cedric hurry up, I don't want to join mammoths and dinosaurs!..."_

...

Cedric Diggory knew something was wrong with the portkey the moment he landed.

They were not at Hogwarts and he had landed on his arse, which for an experienced user indicates a hastily made portkey of low quality.

Turning to see how Harry was doing, he saw him sinking in mud. He quickly moved to help him, only to have his hand graze the cup lying in darkness on the ground and have himself pulled back to Hogwarts...

...:.

He hated everything about the place with passion. It reminded him too much of the asylum. Nevertheless, it was his family home and the perfect place to implement his plan.

After the Master's death, he had managed to fool Dr. Stewart into believing that his condition would be cured after a convalescence period – preferably under the care of the family.

Luckily, Harper and Hellsing had not destroyed the crates with the earth the Master had brought to the Exeter house.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Mark

As the time went by, Albus was starting to believe that sending the Potters to hide under Fidelius had been a terrible mistake. It was an ancient and obscure charm that used loyalty bonds between friends and family to create absolute defence around an object or a person. While it indeed represented the paramount protection, it was like putting a target sign over the Potters and saying he had managed to identify the child of the prophecy, even if, in all honesty, he had mixed feelings about the value of Divination; even if it was genuine prophecy, nowhere it said the child had to be born that particular year.

Anyway, it didn't matter whether Albus believed the prophecy, thanks to the remorse of young Mr. Snape it was clear that Tom believed it to be true and wanted to snip the threat in the bud, and through some convoluted logic had decided it was young Harry Potter who was the threat.

Over the weeks preceding the Halloween Tom had been increasing his activity. Several Order members had perished in very gruesome manner; the circumstances were indicating existence of a traitor or a spy in the Order. How long will it be before Tom finds a way to bypass the protections, and will the Potters have enough time to flee to their next safe-house.

The one who suffered the most these days was Albus' familiar, a phoenix named Fawkes. It's what had helped him identify Tom as "Lord Voldemort" in the first place.

It had been Fawkes' first burning as a bonded familiar, and Garrick Olivander had come to help Albus in the preparations for his coming confrontation with Gellert Grindelwald. The two tail feathers which survived the burning, the event which had been unheard of, had been taken by the ecstatic wandmaker so that he could make a powerful custom wands for Albus to counter the power of the Deathstick.

Olivander had made two wands using the two feathers as their cores. The first wand Olivander had made with the idea that this wand should represent the power of life and had made it using the white wood of the oldest yew in the Forbidden Forest. The second wand had been made from a wood Albus had had brought to the wandmaker and Olivander had had no idea of the exact significance this wand would have to its future owner. The wood had been from the holly tree whose shade covered Ariana's grave, the exact place where she had died. On the trunk one could still see the mark of the backlash of three curses which had pierced her body. One of those curses had been from the Deathstick itself.

It would remain a mystery for the wandmaker why the yew wand had given no response and the holly wand had given such wonderful light and melody when Albus had picked them up for the first time with tears and saying "Even after everything, she is still willing to protect me...".

The yew wand would join other wands in Olivander's shop waiting to be claimed two years later by young Tom Riddle.

After the duel which had become known as "the Greatest Duel of all times", the holly wand had become silent when Albus had picked up the Deathstick. First Albus had offered the wand to his brother Aberforth, and it had been on that occasion that the two had managed to mend a little the broken bridge between them. As the wand had been silent to both of them and neither wanted a constant reminder of painful memories, the holly wand had also been returned to Olivander.

The first sign that something was wrong had been increased frequency of Fawkes' burnings and the loss of liveliness of the phoenix. When "Lord Voldemort" had revealed himself, Albus had noticed that the apex of his familiar's sickness would coincide with the worst attacks. It was clear that Fawkes suffered from the vileness of spells which had been emitted through the feather.

Suddenly, Albus noticed, Fawkes' feathers started falling off like snowflakes and burning right away.

"By Merlin... What are you doing Tom?..." said Albus, fearing the magnitude of the carnage they would soon discover.

And suddenly, the green flames engulfed the phoenix as he cried the song which filled Albus with such profound sorrow he couldn't remember feeling even when visiting Azkaban. And the mist cleared in his mind leaving clear the information where the Potters had been hiding.

"No, no, no..." echoed through Albus' mind as he ran to the edge of Hogwarts' wards to apparate. The fact that young phoenix would take considerably longer time to appear in the ashes would be completely missed.

The walls of entire upper floor of the cottage had been missing and it looked like all houses in Godric's Hollow had broken windows. As he passed the shattered doors, Albus saw James' body and confirmed to his great sadness absence of life. On the upper floor Lily was likewise dead. Albus turned towards the fallen crib fearing the worst. His heart filled with joy noticing the child was still alive.

Young Harry looked completely unharmed except a curious mark on his forehead "°€". Later, consulting some long forgotten tomes in the Restricted Section about runes and other obscure symbols, Albus would discover the mark was the most similar to the symbol of the phoenix and having no knowledge of the meaning of the mark had settled himself to wait what the future would bring to the Potter boy.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Childhood Trauma

When baron Owain Ifans had returned from the Third Crusade, he had spent a year travelling across Great Britain before finding the piece of land that had caught his fancy to settle down, after managing to get it in the lease from the duke.

Old tales spoke he had managed to find some relic or treasure in the Holly Land, or that he had experienced some incredible vision.

The Evans House, as it was known in the village, was a very peaceful place: a beautiful country house surrounded by a large estate shrouding it with ponds and forests from the outside world. It looked like a perfect setting for fairy tales and other fantasy stories that Petunia and Lily would listen to from Grand Ma and Grand Pa Evans.

After a long and eventful military career, starting from the First World War at Gallipoli and the adventures in the Middle East, and after that some more adventures in India and Central Asia, and after the service in the Far East and South East Asia during the World War Two, colonel Evans had finally taken his well deserved retirement and settled on the ancestral land where he devoted his time to his collection of trinkets, gizmos or some archaeological curiosities which he had picked up during his career, and to being doting grandfather to his grandchildren when his children's families were visiting.

Lady Evans, likewise, showed great interest in local cultures and showed great respect to all local beliefs up to the point where people were of the opinion she was a follower of some old cult that still worshipped forgotten Briton deities, or that she was a follower of Neo-Druidic movement.

It had been a very boring week for ten year old Petunia Evans. She had been looking very much to the start of summer vacations, when Lily and she would get to spend glorious time in the "Enchanted forest" where Grand Ma and Grand Pa Evans lived. Unfortunately, five year old Lily had fallen sick, much like Petunia had been sick at that age – Grand Ma had called it "mark of the blessed by the Goddess".

The family library contained many interesting books that Petunia enjoyed reading, but summer was the time for adventures, and to go to their special places all by herself was no fun at all.

Therefore, it had seemed like a good idea to go to the village hall where the local town cinema was doing a marathon of science-fiction and fantasy films as part of publicity stunt tour of local villages – half the price for adults and free for children.

She had been expecting to see some rubber monsters or such, instead she had seen films with the story much too close to her own life – The Village and The Children of the Damned.

After waking up to a horrible nightmare of her sister and her dying in a burning house while their parents and grandparents were calling them freaks, Petunia made a promise to never do anything that was beyond normal human abilities, to be and appear completely ordinary.

...

The creed of Vernon Dursleay consisted of following statements. Mediocre makes Might. The world is his oyster. The line most people say they wouldn't cross is something they had already done when they thought no one was watching.

Mr. Dursley was the sort of man who had the absolute certainty about his complete understanding of the world that surrounds him, at least the part that matters.

He hoped to live the Britain's middle class dream, and was damn proud his mediocre school results – because it had been the mediocre and real tough guys like Vernon who had given their sweat and blood to build the Empire, while the fags from Eaton with their liberalism were responsible for breaking it apart.

Everything too far from the average brings either contempt or jealousy. Furthermore, mediocrity was something Mr. Dursley used with great skill to hide his semi-legal and illegal activities.

Mr. Dursley had devised a schedule with the goals he wanted to achieve and the tools he would use. Naturally, he would periodically make revisions to the schedule to incorporate the change in his surroundings: appointment of new department director, director getting a mistress, whom to suck up to and whom to blackmail, etc.

He had just been nominated as Junior Vice-Director of Acquisitions of a drill making company called Grunnings. The role of the department was to make sure that every part of the company had what they need for optimal performance, as such the department both supervised the supply of necessary production materials and performed some functions related to human resources management, like engaging necessary personnel in a given department.

That day, Mr. Dursley was to have pleasure of supervising the arrival of the new crop of secretaries, their evaluation and participate in the assigning of their duties.

That's where he met Petunia Evans for the first time.

She wore the most conservative outfit imaginable which could still be called not out of style – and the quality of her clothes just screamed "lower middle class" – all in all, she was Vernon's wet dream, after all he would get a hard on every time after seeing Margaret Thatcher on the telly.

...

After a simple and quick ceremony in front of civil authorities, the newlywed Dursleys had taken a room in a hotel which for Vernon was the apex of class, to start their honey-moon.

That's where the things had started to go down-hill for Vernon Dursley.

The scenario which played in Vernon's mind went along following lines: they would take turns in the bathroom and get ready for bed, where dressed in pyjamas (Vernon) and night dress (Petunia) and under the covers they would have an intercourse.

Instead, Petunia had sat on the bed and undressed herself to her underwear and then proceeded to take Vernon's clothes off who was standing there frozen like a deer in the headlights, as he was watching his wife behave like one of those girls who expected a foreplay.

Furthermore, Petunia in underwear and modest secretary Petunia were two entirely different visions – 'My God! Where was she hiding those? It must be the clothes, it must be the clothes...'

With super human effort Vernon was trying to call to his mind the vision of seeing Petunia for the first time – because the woman in front of him looked more like Susannah York or Jenny Agutter, actually she was completely out of any scale Vernon had about women. She was intimidatingly beautiful and Vernon just couldn't get hard.

...

Learning that Petunia was pregnant came as a great relief. Vernon could take a pause now from those torture sessions which were his sex life with Petunia.

If he was lucky enough that it was a boy, maybe he would indulge himself to start neglecting this aspect of his couple completely.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Family Inheritance

Flickers and shadows is how they manifest themselves in the physical world, or as some impossible reflection or a sudden variation in the environment – of temperature, humidity, etc. It is their hunting technique, what they use to attract attention of those with "a sixth sense", be it sensitivity to magic or something else.

The family living on the estate would had been a real feast were it not for the fact the entire area was in the centre of gigantic magical vortex created by the meeting of the major magical rivers and winds of Great Britain. This created a zone with zero ambient magic and the place where the surface magical flows fell into enormous magical chasm to join the flows under the Earth's crust. Thus, nothing supernatural could manifest and majority of magically sensitive humans avoided the place as it was considered the place where magic died, in contrast with the places where magic from the underground was emerging on the surface. This was the place baron Ifans had been looking for.

…

Very, very long time ago, an extremely bright and promising young Greek mathematician and engineer from Syracuse (the one in Sicily, not the city in the state of New York), and because of that an important asset to the Brotherhood, got initiated in a special ceremony presided by the Grand Master himself, who had come from Croton.

The Brotherhood taught the young Greek of the mystic power hidden in the numbers. With the knowledge he discovered of the ways that even the most ordinary of mortals could command secret forces in nature.

Now, this young fellow was interested in a girl, and the girl liked him back. Unfortunately, the girl was from a very old family of those naturally gifted to command the secret forces, and it was deemed by the head of the family that only someone with the ability to command the forces would be worthy of the girl.

He used his knowledge to create an object, a wooden dodecahedron which would hold twelve brass pentagon plates engraved with symbols and flow lines. When assembled in the right way on the dodecahedron, the plates would create the special flow of magic which transported the fellow into the realm of spirits and there he was able to move between reflective surfaces and enter the girl's chambers, and trigger the security wards.

As it was still the age when ridiculous notion of magic theft had not been invented, the young Greek was warmly welcomed, because in the family there had been those born without the gift and the invention meant that even they were able to use the family treasure and the family would be able to pretend in front of other magical families as not having at all non-magically gifted members. Also, the head of the family had deemed that the fellow's mind was a magic of its own kind and thus great quality to be introduced in the family heritage.

Many years later (precisely during Roman invasion of Syracuse), this Greek fellow was working on engraved brass balls which replicated the effects of some powerful, but difficult to master, battle spells, when a Roman soldier named Vernus Dursleus entered the house. Deeply concentrated on the work, the Greek fellow demanded from the soldier not to touch his balls, which the soldier understood as though this person had maybe thought he was a fag. The soldier got angry and killed this unknown fellow who dared question his inclinations, even though his superiors had ordered before the invasion that this Greek fellow should not be harmed. From here also originates the expression "to have brass balls".

…

Some centuries later, king Richard I was riding through Sicilian countryside with his closest companions, and they had the extreme misfortune to pass in the vicinity of the long forgotten grave of Archimedes, where also the particular dodecahedron (in fully operational configuration) had been buried.

Over the time various species of spirit predators had started to use the dodecahedron to trap and phase away unsuspecting travellers to feast on their souls and garmonbozia, or to enter the physical realm.

The king managed to survive only because the efforts of baron Ifans gave them long enough time to follow the instructions of the old spirit who had remained bound until someone was able to defuse the trap which he had unknowingly left.

After recovering from the effects, the king ordered sir Ifans that he should return immediately to England and follow the last instructions of the old man – to find the special place, which according to the knowledge of the ancient Greek magicals was located somewhere in Albion, and make a fortress to guard this dangerous object.

Later, other dangerous relics had found their resting place in sir Ifans' safe-house.

…

The civil war had brought destruction to the estate. Lord-guardian Evans had remained to the very end loyal to the king. As a result, Cromwell's forces had besieged the castle, and the lord had died in his burning home.

The title and the land were later restored to a cadet branch of the Evans family. Unfortunately, the restored king ignored all about the task of the lord-guardian and the late lord had not managed to entrust the secret to other branches of the family.

…

At the beginning of 19. century, the last son of lord Evans had developed a savant syndrome. The child showed great interest in the puzzle of twelve metal pentagons.

After at first flipping around the pieces in his hands, the boy started making sketches of pentagons with symbols and flow-lines, and after finishing fell into a complete catatonic state.

In order to provoke some reaction, the father decided to gather the sketches and have the pieces made. This resulted in creation of 7200 pieces grouped into five sets of 12 x 120 pieces. It is said that the boy had started to play with the new pieces when they were placed in front of him.

The savant son of lord Evans had managed to create a very much improved version of Archimedes' initial design. 12 x 120 pieces corresponded to a hyper-dodecahedron and five sets symbolised the five elementary (though some were unknown at the time) forces: the four forces of the physical world and magic the fifth. It gave possibility to open passageways to great number of very, very dangerous places. And the denizens of those places, having sensed the possibility of entering new territories had gathered in their parallel worlds around the Evans estate, waiting.

…

As a child, it had been the most enchanting room of the house to her – the family library. It also served as Grand Pa's working room and the place where he had put his collection and other family possessions on the exhibit.

He had told her that when he had been younger sometimes he would get goosebumps being in the library even in the summer.

Now, the red-haired woman was sitting there alone – it had been some years that old colonel and lady Evans had passed away, and uncle George had inherited the title, but he and his family preferred to spend their time in London where things were in constant movement.

It was the day of winter solstice and she had come here to spend a few days, after learning that she was pregnant, wanting to gather necessary strength and courage to bring her child into the very dangerous world. Watching the sun go down, the woman slowly fell asleep.

All sorts of entities were gathered in that room, watching the woman and that very special child in her womb, waiting for the beginning of the longest night.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Preparing for the Journey

'Well, that's quite a surprise', thought Albus Dumbledore as he read the information he had received from his contact in muggle police. Apparently, as his next of kin, beside his mother's sister Petunia Dursley, young Harry also had a grand-uncle on his mother's side, lord George Evans.

On his father's side, Harry's grandfather, Charlus Potter had been the only son of the only son and that meant Harry was the last of the Potters. His closest relations were the Blacks: Sirius Black (eternal teenager), who was also the boy's godfather, Andromeda Tonks née Black (good and sane alternative to placing the boy with the Dursleys), Bellatrix Lestrange née Black (Tom's top lieutenant), Narcissa Malfoy née Black (married to a member of Tom's inner circle).

Dumbledore viewed magic as both blessing and a curse. It could become blessing only when a person was sufficiently trained. A child with magic was the same as a child holding a gun or a bomb detonator. Therefore, both as the Headmaster and the Supreme Mugwump, and also as a long time fighter against the worst elements of magical society, Dumbledore felt he had the responsibility to take certain decisions concerning the future of magical children and society – even if it meant taking away freedom to decide from others or manipulating them.

It was one of Dumbledore's greatest regrets and he still felt greatly embarrassed. It was his (and not only his) greatest secret, and for a very good reason. After graduating in his apprenticeship to Master Flamel and having earned the title "Journeyman of Alchemy", Albus had been given one last and special test – the Philosopher's stone. This test would decide whether he would pursue his road alone, or whether there had still been something the Master could teach him.

The test had been to understand what the stone was and how it worked. Albus had been certain he had already known what the stone did. After all, it was cited as one of Master Flamel's greatest achievements. As he had worked on the stone, he had come to appreciate how complex and beautiful work of art and magic it had been, and naturally he had been able to synthesise the serum and turn led to gold – and he had failed.

Master Flamel had then explained (as far as he had been authorised to do): the stone was in fact a huge library and the serum making feature was only a safeguard mechanism; those who made the serum or gold would never be allowed the knowledge of the stone. Master Flamel had also been given the same test by his Master, as his Master had been by the Master before him. The origin of the stone had long ago been forgotten. There had indeed been nothing more for Master Flamel to teach Albus.

As a parting gift, Albus had learnt one last lesson: the reasons for his failure. He, like the rest of witches and wizards perceived magic only as a tool, in terms of arithmancy equations which determine power and limitations. What he had learnt before with the Master, had not been enough to keep him away from the trap and give him the ability to see the hidden truth.

It was for that reason that Albus didn't really want Harry to grow up among witches and wizards. It was clear that something important was lost to the society. If there ever was a chance that the prophecy might be right and the ball in the Department of Mysteries indicated it was still active, then maybe if the boy would be allowed to grow with magic unblemished "the power he knows not" would be revealed to him.

Also, it was very disturbing how fast witches and wizards were developing a cult around the tragic events and were trying to turn Harry Potter into an icon of hope against darkness. Albus was of the idea that it would probably be the best for Harry to be placed with a completely non-magical family.

It would be convenient if Petunia accepted to take the care of the child, he would be able to avoid the sensitive matters connected with exposing magical society to a high profile personality. After coming to the throne of William of Orange, the only high profile personalities to be in the know had been the prime ministers and the ministry of magic preferred to maintain such status.

He would see with his contact tomorrow to organise a meeting with the Dursleys and a trustworthy person from child care services who would insure proper authorities that everything concerning the placement of Harry Potter was in order.

...

When her sister had turned eleven, she had received a letter saying she had been accepted to a special school that trained those gifted with the ability to use magic. The entire family had then been introduced to a society of magically gifted people that called themselves witches and wizards by a rather pleasant Scottish lady.

The only reproach to this nice lady would be the fact that she had instantly labelled the rest of them with a derogatorily sounding term "muggles" which applied to those without magic – which to Petunia had seemed as mighty pretentious. Especially in the light of fact that she too had some abilities, but had never been of the opinion that it was fun to play with them as Lily would often do.

Petunia didn't hate her sister, wasn't jealous of her gift or the fact their parents had been very proud to have a witch in the family. Petunia was simply scared of magic like someone who was scared of the destructive power of fire and therefore refused to play with matches in a gas filled room.

And now, she had been entrusted to take care of her nephew, who was clearly very magical. What was even worse was that she felt like she had been given a lamb to take care of before the people from Hogwarts would come and take it to the slaughter.

Maybe she could help Harry to be ready when it would be his time to enter that danger filled world which insisted to take him away. She would make sure that Harry is taught all of important life lessons.

...

When he had finally cleared his mind from the cacophony of voices, the avalanche of data and the sensory overload, he had managed to learn from his surroundings and his state that he was located in a suburban town of Little Whinging, Surrey, England. He was in the house which belonged to the Dursley family, of which Mrs Dursley was his deceased mother's sister. This information was accompanied with a very distant feeling of sadness, as if he was seeing the entire world in a very big (make that huge) picture and death of a loved person would always remain just a tiny detail.

Wait..., wasn't he supposed to be, like a 16 months old baby? His parents had always been very proud how smart and precocious he had been, but still...

On his inner clock it was marked that he had awakened to consciousness on 21 December 1979 and today was 12 November 1981. Why was there a clock in his mind in the first place? Something was rotten in the state of Denmark.

Wait..., how was he able to quote Shakespeare just now? And for that matter how did he know Shakespeare?

I looked as if his already very advanced mind had been given a mega upgrade.

...

Even a far lesser mind would had quickly arrived to the same conclusion. He was not wanted at the Dursleys'. He was tolerated, as if his presence there was troubling their peace and was keeping them away from leading their perfectly settled lives.

Uncle Vernon, apparently liked very much when all the things went his way, and would otherwise become very unpleasant to be around.

Aunt Petunia seemed like a good soul, but he always had impression that his presence there kept open some very old wounds.

Dudley... well, Dudley simply suffered from being a victim of uncle Vernon's desire to turn him into a Vernon Dursley 2.0 and even Dudley was able to sense that his parents welcomed Harry as much as an elephant would be in a fine china shop – and would therefore bully Harry as much and as often as possible.

Nevertheless, he was never abused. The Dursleys were strong supporters of always appearing completely normal and average (uncle Vernon's obsession) in front of the neighbours. Also, it seemed like the Dursleys treated him like a mosquito bite – the less they scratched the quicker he would disappear.

...

A video club have opened in town, and aunt Petunia has decided she wanted to have a weekly cinema night at home – cultural development of child should always be encouraged and they seem to have all the classics. Much to uncle Vernon's dismay she appears to be a fan of horror and sci-fi cinema and is also fond of fantasy tales.

Her first choice for the start had been "Village of the Damned" and the week after "Children of the Damned". There is great wisdom in those films – just because they had the ability, the children had been seen as having real desire to harm and destroy. Because of their origin they had become seen as envoys of a conquering species.

...

There is a very important message in "Superman" films: No matter how powerful you are and how good-willing you are to help people, there is always a mad-man out there with the ability to make your life miserable. Also, it was rather condescending of Jor-El to treat Humans as inferior society when Kryptonians had criminals like Zod.

...

He was completely and utterly bored out of his mind. His only escape could have been plastic arts or music class, but he had to keep it down there too, to avoid turning attention of teachers on himself.

There is however, one important aspect that explains his presence there – social interaction. There are some things which can only be learnt through practical experience.

...

The town of Little Whinging is a fascinating place. You can find both the best and the worst of what Humanity has to offer, and it should be taken in the broadest of senses. That's why he found all those aunt Petunia's practical lessons very useful.

It looks like his aunt's grandfather hadn't believed women were damsels in distress, and had taught his girls to be ready in a considerable number of dangerous situations, much to the indignation of their mother who hadn't felt it was very proper for a lady to know how to use a balisong or similar weapons. Also, while Lily would get stranded in a castle in Scotland for ten moths learning magic, Petunia would still be free to enjoy martial arts practices and survival camping trips.

...

Nature was filled with a living energy, and even here in a ordinary place like Little Whinging its bright colours were shining everywhere.

He had known from a very tender age that his body too, produced the same kind of living energy, and because of it being alive he had decided to treat it with respect and had treated it like you would treat a person you hoped would become your best friend. And indeed it had become, it had helped him build the strongest possible body and had taught him how to be able to use any variety of the living energy.

At the age of ten Harry Potter was a true child of nature. Powerful and inconspicuous.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Starting the Journey

Whenever there was a sensitive and/or risk-filled mission involving going into muggle world, Albus had three persons of choice to count on: Remus Lupin, Severus Snape and Rubeus Hagrid.

For the reasons pertaining to their background these had much deeper understanding of muggles (and in Hagrid's case many other cultures) than other members of Albus' group of merry wizards and witches, and were also experts in various forms of combat.

The mission at hand consisted of getting the invitation letter to Harry Potter, unsuspecting hero of wizarding world, and introducing him to magical society, as Harry had been living at his aunt's place as a muggle since the Potter tragedy.

Many of Tom's followers, coming from very eminent families, had managed to avoid long prison sentences and some, like Lucius Malfoy, had even managed to get completely unblemished by pleading being under Imperious and by covering well their crimes.

A very thorough forensic investigation by the Unspeakables and Albus himself, had concluded that a series of strange circumstances and coincidences had led to the miracle survival of Harry Potter and the temporary demise of Lord Voldemort - showing how deep Tom had delved into dark magic. By the agreement between the Unspeakables and the Magical Law Enforcement it had been decided to keep this information secret and an investigation had been under way to discover what exactly Tom had done so that temporary could be transformed into permanent.

Albus also knew perfectly well that Tom had his own network of contacts in all spheres of magical society, and was therefore counting with the existence of a still active group of Tom's followers who would be interested in resuming their criminal activities, and interested in scoring big against authorities by harming Harry Potter.

That is why Albus had placed Mrs. Arabella Figg, another person who knew how to blend among muggles, to keep an eye on Harry's well-being. The reports he had received over the years had given mention of Harry living under strict and military discipline but otherwise having a normal childhood.

If you were looking for someone to keep a piece of information secret, Rubeus Hagrid was notoriously known for spilling his soul after a few glasses of mead or firewhisky, but if you were looking for stealth and a capable bodyguard, Hagrid would be your best choice.

...

Much to the overwhelming joy of Vernon Dursley, Petunia Dursley had quit working as a secretary, and had devoted herself to being a perfect housewife, which had allowed Vernon Dursley to live his perfect dream-life (which apparently was based on 50s and 60s television shows). Vernon loved the best when the things were going his way with the least possible effort.

In truth, even a woman of lesser mental abilities would had understood what a potential gold mine represented those little oddities about Harry Potter (the ability to instantly access any information in any library or database in the world being one of them), and she had been in the front seat as she was the one who was helping him train not to expose himself to the world.

She had then decided to embrace the philosophy expressed by Maggie Smith in Hot Millions: "A woman's place is at home, making money."

Which had led to more joy for Vernon Dursely as he was firmly convinced that it had been his immense ability as a businessman and an embezzler which had placed his family in financial Garden of Eden and had enabled them to get the residence in the most exclusive part of Little Whinging in Wisteria Walk and to live what Vernon qualified as a middle-class dream come true.

For some years now, organisation of vacation trips had been under jurisdiction of Petunia, her best friend Yvonne and their circle of friends. This year they had rented a superb villa on the coast of Majorca for the summer.

On these trips Vernon would usually take Dudley for some father-son bonding, which left Petunia with an open schedule to take Harry free-diving or similar activity devised to test the limits of his physical and mental abilities. Harry also liked to spend time in the gardens and talk with the personnel looking for new ideas - the Dursleys had the most beautiful garden in Little Whinging thanks to him, or to simply soak in the exotic feeling of local magic.

"Happy birthday Harry." This year again thanks to her, Harry was able to have his moment of joy to mark his turning eleven. They were now seated around the beach fire while she was observing his meditation exercises. She was very proud with his progress. There was no outward sign like wind gusts or aura to tell his magical awareness was expanding around him.

"How far were you able to go this time?"

"I can almost instantly connect my energies with the flows in the Oort cloud." He avoided mentioning he had corrected trajectories of some masses which otherwise would be directed towards Earth. He had been very careful and had asked the flows not ordered them to make only minimal corrections.

...

He had been enjoying his morning talk with Carlos the gardener in the front garden, as they had noticed a taxi approaching and stopping at the gates. Out of the car had gotten out the tallest and most massive person Harry had ever seen. The man had reminded Harry very much of the villain Non dressed in a three-piece suit.

The gentleman had presented himself as Rubeus Hagrid, representing Hogwarts school for gifted children, and had politely asked to speak with Mrs. Petunia Dursley. This had left Harry wondering if Dudley had maybe finally blown the fuse after all Vernon's efforts to mould him to his own image and had done something extreme to avoid going to Smeltings - prospect of wearing the straw hat and those knickerbockers must had been enough to wake up mutations even in someone like Dudley.

It had turned out the man had been looking for Harry, and after a long talk had explained all about magical society and Harry's place in it. Harry shuddered after seeing in his mind some of the titles of fantasy books some wizards and witches had written about him. He also shuddered after checking the regulations if he decided not to go to Hogwarts - the Ministry would send someone to bind his energies. It meant he had to go to Hogwarts to avoid getting even more under the spot-light and to learn of any possible threat and what would be their magical abilities. Another mental check had shown him the Ministry had only issued announcement about Lord Voldemort's down-fall, but nothing about Tom Riddle's death.

The next day he had bid Hagrid fare-well until his return home, when it was scheduled they would go shopping in Diagon Alley.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: First Impressions

Hagrid was having a very good day. He had been honoured by being given an important mission. He had never been to Majorca and there was that pleasure associated with excitement of going into unknown territory. There was also the pleasure he was feeling from the fact that he would be the one to introduce Lord Potter's grandson to the magical community.

The Potters were the only family that had ever managed to be highly respected by wizards and remain largely independent from the Ministry. That is why the Potters had often been chosen as ambassadors by the sentients to plead their cause in conflicts with wizards. It was everybody's bet whether the new Lord Potter would know how to keep the family's independence or if he would fall back under the pressure of other powerful families to completely embrace wizarding ways.

Then his day had got even better as he had had met Harry Potter. At first sight there had been nothing unusual about the boy, but then something at the back of his mind had started telling him that in his excitement he had been missing something huge. Like the usual feeling he would get when in the company of a witch or a wizard.

It was his secret: as a child of nature, he had learnt that people of forest, like centaurs and giants, had a very different perception of magic from wizards. Magic of wizards was always noisy, even when they were not using it, and Hagrid could always tell there was a wizard in proximity because of the noise his magic was making.

The feeling Hagrid was receiving now, was of someone completely in tune with ambient magic, like when he had been talking with an elder of centaurs. This was a huge discovery, never before had there been a wizard whose magic was that much in tune with nature.

...

He could had given the right wand right after the first one the boy had tried, he knew by heart their signatures and could tell right away which one would be the most suitable for a given child. But he had wanted to taste the boy's magic more and more. It had the taste of his people, reminded him of his children, before wizards had come and exterminated them all, before he had been forced to become Olivander.

As the boy had left he had finally let emotions get the better of him and let himself slide to the ground in a corner and started crying tears of joy and sorrow.

...

It was the sort of meeting that every General Director dreads but at the same time wishes to have at least once in his career. Which is, of course quite natural given the size of the account. His skill in today's dealings will either set his reputation for the generations to come, or he would be swiftly eliminated from his position - and there is no figurative sense among Goblins.

Usually, matters of inheritance are simple ones: one person dies and the designated people receive their parts of the estate. With the Potter estate things were complicated in two aspects.

Thanks to very wise investment strategy, the Potter estate had considerably increased in times when other powerful families had lost lot of theirs. Also there was quite a number of accounts at Gringotts which had Lord Potter as their administrator (whenever a wizard or a sentient wanted to associate their fortune with the Potters' good fortune). And furthermore, the Potters had important accounts with other banks, both muggle and magical. Their complete fortune made the Potters easily the richest creatures on the planet. This all meant that General Director would be tasked with evaluating abilities of both the Potter heir and his caretaker in order to properly schedule reception of the estate.

The second aspect resided in the fact that the Potter estate had been frozen for the last ten years and thanks to the contract it had been under the care of Goblin nation, and they had made lot of money thanks to that. Now that the estate had been activated again, a new contract could be negotiated and fortune redistributed differently among different accounts, which could either mean creation of new or closing of investment opportunities for Goblin nation.

...

That muggle woman had been quite formidable. He had to admit she had shown business flare which equalled that of a Goblin or (even if he profoundly disliked them) a Swiss Dwarf.

If the next Lord Potter was under her care, then the things were just starting to get interesting. That she was sister of a muggle-born witch, created interesting possibilities and he had decided that in the future they should also open their services to the families of muggle-borns (even if that would scandalize some of the pure-bloods).

...

It seems that going to magical school will turn out to be as boring as going to a normal one, although making sure that his gift could also easily access magical databases will provide him with enough challenge for a time being.

The books he has read all depict society which had somehow crippled its own magic, though such heresy is never openly expressed.

He was also excited about the possibility to learn magic of other species, but it seems that each species keeps to itself even when relationships between them are quite friendly.


End file.
